[Buddha-l] Extreme practice

[jkirk]

"Yes, and I'm having it reviewed for h-buddhism, so a considered
opinion (not my own) will eventually be available." 

Please notify us here when the review is out so we can read it,
Thanks
JK

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Dan
Lusthaus
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 2:54 PM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Extreme practice

> James A. Benn . _Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in
Chinese 
> Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism)_. U. Hawaii Press,
2007.
>
> And we thought it was just a few neurotic individuals, not
heroes. 
> Looks like the Middle Way got dumped by the Mahayanists.
>
> Has anyone seen this book?      Joanna

Yes, and I'm having it reviewed for h-buddhism, so a considered
opinion (not my own) will eventually be available.

The most famous example of Buddhist self-immolation is the
Buddhist monk in Viet Nam in the 60s who used that means to
protest the war (actually to protest the N. Vietnamese Catholics
and their policies that the US kept installing as puppet
dictators). But burning of fingers, limbs, entire bodies is a
well documented, ancient practice.

The official mainstream position was that self-immolation was
"wrong." But zealous practitioners ignored those protestations,
and often performed their immolations as public "miracle" events
which, understandably, would gather a great deal of interest. The
practice that many Chinese monks and nuns follow to this day of
burning a few "dots" on their head with incense sticks as part of
their initiation is a holdover from that.

I first encountered back in grad school in a Chinese text reading
class. The story of Monk Yai (ca. 5th c, if memory serves) is
archetypical of the genre. Yai is involved in various ascetic and
magical practices, and takes to burning off his fingers. But he
can make the fingers regrow! The local Buddhist masters try to
dissuade him from the practice but he stubbornly persists. At one
point he gives a public display, burning the flesh off his
fingers, and continuing the burning process until his fingers,
bones and all, are gone. Then, magically, the bones reemerge, and
then flesh regrows to cover them. The crowd is so impressed they
start shouting praises, and claim they will build a great stupa
to honor him when he dies. Disgusted with the praise, he bites
off a finger and spits it at them, saying, "There!
Go build your stupa!" When he's ready to die, he sets up a huge
platform (=
stage) at a major crossroads, and when a large enough crowd has
gathered, sets himself completely on fire. Once, the fire dies
down, there are still corpse vestiges, so more fuel is added and
the fire is reignited (I guess he had assistants). When they poke
around the ashes at the end they find the only thing remaining is
his heart (heart=mind), which is still moist.

Dan

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